Maramures & Bucovina

Maramures & Bucovina

Bucovina is a region located in the north of Romania (Moldova) whose name dates back to 1774, means “land covered by forests of beech trees.” Famous for its beautiful landscapes, the Bukovina even more for its painted monasteries built in buckets. XV-XVI under the principles Moldova Stephen the Great and his son Petru Rares.
For there is no other place in the world that Bucovina in Moldavia North, where a group of Orthodox monasteries with their external wall paintings can be seen. These painted monasteries are part of the UNESCO World Heritage for their rarity and beauty.
Seven of the painted monasteries of Bucovina were placed on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. The eighth, Sucevita, it is awaiting sanction to be added to the list.
Land of Maramures wooden doors
In the land Maramures, Romania, life follow an ancient rhythm, punctuated by the seasons and rites inspired by the mystery of nature. In the smile of its people, the wisdom of a different way of life, harmony and balance that our time has forgotten.
Maramures is pristine and ancient heart of Romania, where he still lives according to the rhythms, customs and traditions out of time. By the ancient Dacians and Thracians the past sent his voice without interruptions and an ancient civilization with deep rural roots, perhaps the last of Europe, has been preserved, intact and alive to this day. Stubborn and independent, in their isolated valleys protected by the Carpathian Mountains, between Transylvania and the Ukraine, the Maramures are farmers and artisans and artists need for wood for passion.
Situated in the extreme north of Romania, on the border with Ukraine, Maramures region preserves the ancestral traditions in a fairy tale where time seems to stand still and where farmers still work with tools that have disappeared elsewhere.
CFF Viseu de Sus is located in the eastern county of Maramures. Also known as “Mocanita” or railway Vaser Valley, the track steam train runs along the Vaser River and is the only means of transport to the heart of Maramures Mountains (protected area). Built in 1932, the railroad Vaser Valley is still working, aimed primarily as recording wood from the forest for wood processing factories in Viseu de Sus. CFF Viseu de Sus is now the last remaining train functional forestry in Europe is still used to transport the wood.
Inhabited by the descendants of the free Dacians who gave a hard time to the Roman army, Maramures is an area known for its festivals, splendid costumes worn even today, for the architecture of the houses and churches with pointed roofs built exclusively wood and the characteristic arcades carved houses. Once in Maramures, you realize that here the wood is not just a building material, but the way it is used and valued makes you think of a culture where the wood under the hands of artisans takes a soul, buy its own personality. The wooden churches of Maramures characteristics, even if we find them in other regions of Romania, represent the quintessence of the art of woodworking. The timber has entrusted their heart, their soul and their symbols of life and death. The wood preserves the spirit of the tree and never dies. Work it, carve it, it means to extract the secret essence, reveal and bring to light the sacred bond that unites the earth and the sky. Tree as a man, as a community forest, carved wood as a human being developed and implemented, the master of the meaning of each sign. The churches have generally a simple rectangular plan, the towers are draped on nao or porch.
Eight of these churches have been declared UNESCO heritage of humanity in 1999: Barsana (erected in 1720), Budesti – Josani (erected in 1643), Desesti (erected in 1770), Ieud (erected in 1717), Sisesti – village Plopis ( erected in 1796), Poienile Izei (built in 1604), Targu Lapus – Rogoz village (built in 1663), Sisesti – Surdeti village (built in 1767).

Unfortunately there are no tour offers at this location at the moment.